By IANS,
Shimla : Four bills were introduced in the Himachal Pradesh assembly Thursday to increase the legislators’ salaries and allowances by around Rs.20,000 on grounds of inflation.
A government spokesperson told IANS here that the new pay scales and allowances would entail additional expenditure of Rs.3.30 crore per annum.
The bills are likely to be passed Friday, the last day of the budget session.
The bill proposes an increase of over Rs.21,000 per month in the emoluments of legislators, which include a hike in salary and constituency allowance.
The minimum pension of former legislators would be raised from Rs.14,000 to Rs.18,000 per month.
The salary of the chief minister would be increased by Rs.5,000 from Rs.34,000 to Rs.39,000, the ministers from Rs.31,000 to Rs.36, 000, the ministers of state from Rs.28,000 to Rs.33,000, the chief parliamentary secretary from Rs.18,000 to Rs.23,000 and the parliamentary secretary from Rs.17,000 to Rs.22,000 per month.
Likewise, the salaries of the speaker and deputy speaker would also be increased from Rs.31,000 and Rs.28,000 respectively, to Rs.36,000 and Rs.33,000 per month.
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said in the ongoing assembly session that the debt burden of the state has increased to Rs.5,140.56 crore over the past four years.